“ This is the first time that China has officially brokered an international accord , and also its first involvement in the Middle East: the US has dominated this area of strategic importance for more than 70 years, despite its pivot to Asia at the start of the century. China’s success is partly due to favourable circumstances: Riyadh’s desire to assert its independence from Washington (especially after the US was slow to come to the rescue after terrorist attacks on its oil installations in 2019); and Iran’s concerns over its economic crisis as well as anti-government protests and threats of Israeli attacks on its nuclear facilities. There is also the growing tendency of countries of the global South not to follow the West’s lead. This diplomatic initiative was driven by the need for hydrocarbons. Saudi Arabia became China’s leading supplier of oil; Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also began supplying natural gas and oil. Between 2002 and 2022, China’s foreign direct investm
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51